Our Resurrection Body

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Corinthians 15 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
The chapter we read today is one of the greatest sustained discussions of a topic which Paul ever wrote. The theme is the resurrection—the resurrection of Jesus, and the future resurrection of those who believe in him. The chapter is long and winding and deals with a whole variety of issues regarding the resurrection. If you're looking for an interesting book about heaven, resurrection, and our mission as God's followers, I'd encourage you to read NT Wright's Surprised by Hope. It gives a much fuller treatment of this chapter and other biblical passages that discussed the resurrection.

I struggled mightily to find a single point on which to focus, but finally settled on the thing which I assume all of us are interested in: our resurrection body. In reading this chapter, almost everyone wants to know the answer to the question: What will our resurrection body be like?

We may as well go to the heart of the passage, to the verse that has puzzled people many times in the past, and still does. In verse 44 Paul contrasts the two types of bodies, the present one and the resurrection one. The words he uses are technical and tricky. Many versions translate these words as "natural body" and "spiritual body," but this has led to a lot of misconceptions over the years. Many people have assumed that Paul is making a contrast between a physical body and a spiritual body—that he's saying we currently have a physical body but our resurrection body will be spiritual, in the sense of "non-physical." But that is exactly what he is not saying.

The contrast he's making is between a body animated by one type of life and a body animated by another type. The difference between them is found in what the two bodies "run on," in what empowers them. Our present body is animated by the normal life which all humans share. The word Paul uses for this often means "soul"—he means it in the sense of the ordinary life-force on which we all depend, in this present body, the ordinary energy that keeps us breathing and our blood circulating. But the body we shall be given in the resurrection is to be animated and empowered by God's own Spirit. This is what Paul says in a similar passage, Romans 8:10-11: 

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 

The Spirit of Jesus dwells within us at the moment and God promises to give life to your mortal bodies through this Spirit who lives inside of us. And when the Spirit creates a new body, it won't wear out.

 

Paul does in fact think that the resurrection body will be a different kind of thing to the present one, because in verses 51-52 (and in Philippians3:20-21) he declares that Christians who have not died at the moment when Jesus returns as Lord will need to be changed. The contrast between the present and future bodies in themselves is stated in verses 42-43. It is the contrast between corruption (our present bodies become ill, parts of it wear out, we decay, die, and return to dust) and incorruption (the new body won't do any of those things). It is the contrast between shame (we know we were made for more than this decaying, corrupting life, and we are ashamed of frailty and death) and honor (the new body will be splendid, with nothing to be ashamed of). It is the contrast between weakness and power.

 

With this in mind, we can now stand back and see how Paul's whole argument works.

 

In verses 35-38, Paul introduces the idea of the seed which is sown looking like one thing and which comes up looking quite different. Paul doesn't, of course, mean that when you bury a body in the ground, a new one "grows" like a plant from its seed. The point he's making is simply that we understand the principle of transformation, of a new body in continuity with the old yet somehow different. And he emphasizes particularly that this happens through the action of God: "God gives it a body as he has determined." That's the first thing to grasp: the resurrection is the work of God the Creator, and it will involve transformation.

 

In verses 39-41, Paul establishes a different point: that we are all used to different types of physicality, all the way from the fish in the sea to the stars in the sky. When Paul speaks of some of these physical objects as having a "splendor," he's not necessarily preparing us for the idea that people raised from the dead will shine like electric light bulbs. Instead, when he describes the new body as having "glory," it's in contrast to "dishonor" or "shame" or "humiliation" (verse 43, and Philippians 3:21). His point is simply to note that there are different types of created physicality, each with its own properties.

 

Throughout the entire passage, Paul has been echoing Genesis 1—where God creates the sun, the moon and the stars, and particularly trees and plants that have their seed within them. The underlying theme of the whole chapter is new creation, new Genesis—God will complete the project he began at the beginning, and in the process he will reverse and undo the effects of human rebellion, especially death itself.

 

Next, Paul moves on to the climax of Genesis 1—the creation of human beings in God's own image (Genesis 1:26-28). As with Jesus' resurrection, so with ours—our new resurrected body will not be a strange distortion of our original humanity, but will be the very thing we were made for in the first place.

 

Verses 42-49 bring Paul to the crunch. The ultimate contrast between the present body and the future one is between two basic types of humanness. God already has the new model in store, waiting to put it out on display at the proper time—though, of course, the prototype, the resurrection body of Jesus himself, has already been launched.

 

When Paul speaks of the "earthly" humanity and the "heavenly" humanity, he doesn't mean that we will all "go to heaven" to become the new type. Rather, God will bring this new type of humanity, our new bodies, from heaven to earth, transforming the present bodies of Christians who are still alive, and raising the dead to the same kind of renewed, deathless, glorious body.

 

That is the hope set before us in the resurrection; and it is all based, of course, on the fact that Jesus himself, the Messiah, already possesses the new type of body. He is "the heavenly man"; and, just as we have borne the image of the old, corruptible humanity, so we shall bear the image of Jesus himself (Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:20-21).

 

The overall point of the chapter is that in the resurrection of Jesus himself the power of the creator God was at work to bring about the renewal of the world, and that through the work of the Spirit this same creator God will give new, glorious, deathless bodily life to all his people.

 

 

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for raising Jesus from the dead. We praise you for defeating sin and death and all the forces of darkness in and through the resurrection of your Son. We long for the day when he returns in his resurrection glory and puts all things in order. Strengthen us today to remember that we have been given the promise of resurrection. We, today, are new people in and through Christ. And we know that one day our bodies will be transformed to reflect the glory of your Son. Fill our hearts with hope and strengthen us to walk in victory this day.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom and I long for the day when my body will be renewed and restored. But even more, I long for the day when my body will be fully animated and empowered by God's Spirit. I look forward with great expectation to the day when it is easy and natural to walk in righteousness and obedience to God.